Nurse Solo
by redemptionalley
Summary: Rey is a nursing student with big aspirations, and Ben is everything she wants to be. Despite their age difference, the two find themselves crushing on each other, but both are too afraid to tell the other. It's a textbook case of skinny love.


**Chapter 1**

It was a bittersweet moment for Ben. Even though he was surrounded by all his workplace friends, he couldn't help but feel sad.

"I'm really going to miss her," Hux sighed. "I mean, I'm not going to miss her being on my ass all the time, but there was something comforting about her nagging."

Ben rolled his eyes. Hux clearly didn't have the best relationship with Phasma, but she and Ben never had issues. Hux's lack of urgency despite the fact that their line of work was quite literally "life and death" caused him to butt heads with Phasma very often.

Phasma always said, "It may not be _your_ life on the line, but you could at least pretend to care."

Despite their differences, both Hux and Phasma had good intentions at heart, and at the end of the day, they could still be friends. They just had very different nursing styles. Ben supposed this was one of the reasons Phasma was allowed to be the charge nurse while Hux had never been. Hux insisted that he didn't want to be a charge, but everyone suspected otherwise.

"Alright everyone, listen up!" called Matt from across the room, draping his arm over Phasma's shoulders in a tipsy manner that implied he was not the designated driver that night. "First of all, let's give a big thanks to Phasma for not only being one of the hardest working nurses I've ever worked with, but for hosting us at her beautiful home." A couple of the other nurses cheered jokingly.

"Sit down, Matt, you're drunk!" hollered Hux, who received a single-fingered gesture in return. Hux feigned offense as he clutched his chest and his jaw dropped.

"Let's all say one memory we have with Phasma," Matt suggested.

"Oh no, please don't, I don't feel like crying," chuckled Phasma, who tried to pry Matt's arm off her shoulder, but he wasn't having any of it.

"I'll start!" exclaimed Matt. "I remember when Phasma had to drive me home from Rose's birthday party, and we got lost trying to find my apartment for like an hour, so we stopped to grab some Jack in the Box and listened to Adele in her car until I sobered up enough to find my way home."

"Speaking of," Phasma said as she snatched his can away from him, "Let's not repeat that night, shall we?"

Ben almost keeled over with laughter. These were the kinds of moments he'd miss the most. Someone began to play Adele's "When We Were Young" on the Bluetooth speaker as he wiped tears from his eyes.

That's when he saw her.

Not for the first time, but it was the first time he'd seen her not wearing scrubs. Her hair looked much longer when she let it fall over her shoulder instead of tucking it away in a ponytail.

Ben let his gaze linger over her figure as she handed someone a tray of food and apologized for her tardiness while peeling off her coat. She turned to hug a young, black man who took her coat from her and hugged her.

Her eyes met Ben's gaze, who immediately felt his cheeks flood with warmth. Instead of looking away, Ben shot her a tight-lipped smile.

Little did Ben know that she too was blushing.

"Nice of you to show up, Rey," joked Finn.

"You didn't tell me he'd be here, too," hissed Rey to her friend.

"Who, Mr. Broody McDreamy Eyes?"

"What? No!" Rey slapped her friend lightly on the arm. "Luke Skywalker!" Did Finn see her brief interaction with Ben Solo? Was she blushing so visibly that he noticed?

She had never spoken about Ben with Finn. She didn't see any reason to. He was just a very attractive man that she felt flustered around. It was nothing worth mentioning since she'd get over her nervousness once she worked a few more shifts. She assumed her mini crush was due to his status and older age. After all, he was a nurse and she was just a CNA [Certified Nursing Assistant].

Finn snorted, "That's what I meant. Have you seen Skywalker's eyes? They're goddamn beautiful!"

When Finn turned to put her coat in the designated room, Rey let out a sigh of relief. She thought Finn knew about her embarrassing crush.

Luke Skywalker was extremely intimidating to Rey. He was the charge nurse during a few of her shifts, and his intensity scared her. Nothing he did was wrong, per se, but he already had to correct Rey a few times for some mistakes she made. After the first mistake Skywalker corrected her for, she found herself growing very anxious in his presence, leading to a multitude of errors. If anyone was going to suggest she be fired, it would be Skywalker.

Rey was very serious about her job as a CNA, but she was still new to it all. Finn helped show her the ropes and quickly became her first friend at the hospital. He introduced her to the other nurses and CNA's and within her first 2 months, she was personally invited by Phasma to her going away party. It wasn't necessarily a big achievement since the whole department was invited, but she was thrilled that Phasma invited her directly.

With Phasma leaving, Rey would be seeing much more of Luke Skywalker, which she was not looking forward to. She desperately wished he was more like Phasma who lightened the mood with a joke. But Skywalker was more old-fashioned and he seemed to have no time for witty remarks.

"Rey, you're here!" exclaimed Phasma, who greeted her with a warm embrace.

Matt waltzed over to Rey, now choosing to drape his arm around her. "Just in time, it's your turn to share," he said. "Tell us about a good memory you have of Phasma."

It wasn't hard to tell that Rey hated being put on the spot. Ben instinctively clenched his fist at the sight of Matt clearly making her uncomfortable. Still, Rey handled it like a champ.

"Phasma asked me to bring one of the patients a straw for their drink, which to me seemed like a relatively easy task. But I still managed to mess that up. I brought the patient a coffee stirrer, and I was so embarrassed, but Phasma just started laughing hysterically."

Ben noticed relief wash over her as the room erupted in laughter. She glanced over at Luke, who cracked a smile, much to her amazement, before she returned her attention to Phasma. Finally, she let herself giggle as well, which caused Ben to bite his lip to suppress his own desire to smile at her glee.

Rey stuck with Finn the whole party since he was the only one she really knew well enough. Finn, on the other hand, was a social butterfly. He went to talk to Hux by the kitchen counter, and Rey followed closely behind. Accompanying Hux was none other than Ben Solo. _Perfect,_ she thought.

Finn introduced Rey to Hux and Ben, to which she remarked, "I've seen you around the unit." Immediately, she regretted saying that. It wasn't exactly a great conversation starter. Luckily, Hux swooped in to save the day and the conversation.

"How did you do it?" Hux said.

"Huh?"

"How did you get on Phasma's good side? I've been trying for years."

Rey chuckled, "I may or may not have mentioned that I'm attending her alma mater."

"No way, you got into Ach-To's nursing program?" Ben exclaimed, clearly impressed.

"Yup," Finn answered for her. "And she's on track to graduating cum laude."

"I went there too, but I was far from graduating cum laude," Ben laughed. "Is Professor Akbar still there?"

"Yeah! He's the best. I never knew lectures could be so engaging."

"I did some volunteer work with him that changed my life."

Rey and Ben didn't seem to notice that Hux and Finn had slipped away to talk to Poe. They went back and forth about their favorite professor. That is, until a woman, closer to Ben's age, sauntered up to the pair, exuding elegance. "Hello, Ben," she greeted. Her voice was as silky as Rey expected.

"Bazine," Ben answered plainly. "This is Rey," he gestured, and the two shook hands.

"Nice to meet you," Bazine said. Rey thought she would stick around and conversate with them, but she didn't linger a moment longer than she had to before she made her way to other groups.

Rey turned back to Ben, raising an eyebrow to silently asking him who she was, but he clearly didn't want to talk about it. It seemed as if this conversation was over as long as Bazine was there.

"Do you want to do something after this party is over? I'd love to hear what Akbar is up to nowadays," Ben offered.

"I'd love to but…" she nodded towards Finn, who was clearly drunk. "I've got DD duty today."

With the mood killed, Rey excused herself to return to Finn, who was holding a new can of beer. Finn tilted the can towards Rey, offering it to her, but she shook her head. Although she didn't want her co-workers to know she was just 19, she didn't want to break any laws.

As the party winded down, Finn decided it was time to leave. Thankfully, Rey collected her things and held open the door for her stumbling friend. Parties full of co-workers she hardly knew were exhausting. As she shouted her last goodbyes, she once again met Ben's gaze. She hoped she would get a chance to speak to the handsome man again.

Ben wished it was him leaving with her.

"See you at work," he muttered under his breath.

* * *

Hi, welcome to my first fanfiction! Feel free to ask any clarifying questions in the comments and I'll try to answer them, especially questions about how the hospital workplace functions! I'm not planning on writing on a schedule since I'm busy a lot of the time. Also, as of now, the fanfic is rated M, but I'm still not sure if I will include smut/lemon.


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